#112- Ashes and Diamonds

Quick recap: Maciek Chelmicki is a Polish assassin who has never had any problem killing anyone. No problem that is, until he falls in love.

He’s more James Dean than James Dean was

Fun (?) fact: One of Martin Scorsese’s favorite films. He showed it to Leonardo DiCaprio while filming The Departed so that DiCaprio would see another character with the same struggles that he had.

My thoughts: I’ve never been a big ‘war movie’ kind of person, especially not the ones centered around World War II, because there are SO many out there already. My opinion has started to shift a little lately, thanks to this list. I’m still not too keen on America centered war movies but I find ones from other countries like The Ascent or Rome, Open City to be fascinating, perspective wise. Ashes and Diamonds is a great example of this kind of thing because I have never really thought about what Poland had to go through after the war. Warsaw was in almost complete ruin during WWII and that’s about all I know, so it didn’t occur to me that someone would have to deal with the consequences of a broken country, one that was so fragile after conflict.

Apparently, before France started making ‘artsy’ movies, Poland was considered to be one of the best for that sort of thing. Ashes and Diamonds is a beautiful film. I liked that it wasn’t a straightforward action movie, even though the plot would have me believe otherwise. There were so many haunting parts, my favorite being Maciek and Krystyna strolling through the destroyed church. I loved the contrast between the couple falling in love in the midst of destruction. And just in case it wasn’t clear what was going on, the director threw in the couple coming upon the bodies of the two men Maciek had accidentally killed.

a great place for a first date!

The real reason to watch Ashes and Diamonds is for Maciek Chelmicki. I loved him from the very first scene when he was laying down in the grass, casually waiting to carry out the assassination. He looked so badass in his colored shades and so above it all. He was the true James Dean of Poland- laid back, a rebel, a guy with a story. I thought the idea of him falling in love so quickly was a little silly but it made sense in the context that Chelmicki had never considered the idea before and latched on so fiercely. The final scene as he realized he had been shot fatally and would never get to experience another way of life was heartbreaking, to say the least.

FInal review: 4/5

Up next: Apocalypse Now

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#105- The Golden Coach

Quick recap: An actress in a traveling troupe must choose between 3 men who are in love with her, one of whom gives her a golden coach. But then the actress realizes that she is a self-sufficient talented woman and chooses none of them. In a further ‘screw you’ move, she gives the coach to the Bishop who will in turn use it to help the sick and dying. An important life lesson there: Stick it to your love interests by giving to the poor. I should cross stitch that on a pillow or something.

but first I need to learn how to cross stitch

Fun (?) fact: Director Jean Renoir was the son of Pierre Renoir, the artist. That’s about as fun as I can get on this movie.

Baby picture!

My thoughts: I was afraid to watch this movie for fear I might die from overexposure to pretentiousness. The movie is directed by a French guy, set in Peru, featuring Italian actors. Add to that, the story centers around a Viceroy whose main problem is that he falls for an actress who he can be himself around. You know, a down to earth guy who buys golden coaches. And of course, after giving her this rather extravagant gift, he finds out she’s been seeing two other guys. But really though, the Viceroy should’ve had a bit more common sense than that. Anyone knows that you don’t throw out the golden coach as a gift first thing. If that’s where you start, how can you possibly top yourself?

Visually, the movie is very colorful. The traveling acting troupe’s costumes were gorgeous and made the skits much more enjoyable to watch. I was little confused by the nobility, though. I’m not up on my Peruvian history, far from it, but I don’t think they had a bunch of white guys running around in powdered wigs back then. The plot itself is silly so I won’t analyze it too much. Beyond the colorful costumes and scenery, I was definitely not a fan of the musical score. It was typical classical music, which is fine, but it played THE ENTIRE TIME. Sometimes it was even hard to hear what was going on because the music was so loud. The music didn’t even really match with the plot. If you are going to have a symphony playing at all times, you should at least thrown in a Sad Trombone of Regret or the Triangle of Doom to give the audience cues on how to react.

I’m still confused as to who I was supposed to sympathize with during the movie. Camilla, the actor, is being wooed by a soldier, the viceroy and a bull fighter, one of whom gives her a golden coach.Not really the worst options, if you ask me. As for the suitors, I guess I liked the soldier because he was there from the beginning and Camilla dumped him once she saw she could get something better. The Viceroy annoyed me with his purchases of golden coaches and a never ending trail of women who swooned over him. The bullfighter seemed like a decent choice, minus the ego but isn’t that par for the course for a profession like that? I was a fan of the ending though, Camilla deciding to pursue her acting career and giving the coach away.It was really the best decision because she had caused so much strife within the small community.

This is how to impress the ladies in 18th century Peru

Final review: 1/5. Not a fan, although this wasn’t traumatic like some of my other 1 point movies

Up next: The Conversation

#99- The Bigamist

Quick recap: A man is married to two women at the same time and of course, neither of them know of the other. Do zany hijinks ensue??? No.

Fun (?) fact: This movie was rather devoid of ‘fun’ facts, unless you count Jack Benny’s real house being in the movie. I certainly don’t and I’m silently judging those of you that do.

Jack Benny is suspicious of the fact being labeled ‘fun’

My thoughts: With a title as straightforward as this one, I was expecting something a little more lighthearted, like ‘Oh, that bigamist! Will he ever learn?’ And then one of the women turns to the camera and does a cute shrug of her shoulders and everyone laughs. What The Bigamist ended up being was almost opposite, bordering on melodrama. The story starts with a couple-Harry and Eve Graham- trying to adopt a child since Eve can’t conceive on her own. Mr. Jordan, the adoption coordinator, has the two sign a form consenting to a full background check. Eve happily signs hers while you can almost see the sweat poring out of Harry. Two minutes into the movie and I already know who The Bigamist is! I’m grateful to watch a film that gets right to the point, although I wonder how it would’ve played to keep it a secret like trying to figure out who the murderer is. Is it the postman? Is it the waiter? Is it the guy with shifty eyes, sweat poring out of every orifice?

I was a little surprised by the sensitivity shown to all characters involved, especially considering that no one is really painted as the bad guy. Eve is unable to conceive a child of her own and tries to make up for it by being the perfect wife and business partner to Harry. Harry is the overworked husband, commuting constantly from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Feeling very lonely, he strikes up a relationship with another woman that eventually leads to her getting knocked up. As bad as that sounds, once Harry realizes that Phyllis is pregnant (which would have been near impossible for me to understand. The word ‘pregnancy’ is never mentioned. Instead we see Phyllis lying in bed, her stomach completely hidden by a comforter) he asks her to marry him to make things right. Phyllis is also a victim in the situation. She spends the entire movie trying to prove that she doesn’t need anyone and then when she finally admits to needing Harry, he gets arrested for bigamy. Seeing as how this movie was made in the early 50s, I was expecting a lot more woman blaming, but in the end, Harry owned up to everything.

As for the bigamy thing, I’m a little conflicted about who it really hurt. Harry spends most of the movie moaning about how hard it was to keep the secret of two families, but he never really goes into what it’s like to have two wives. Both women seem happy with the situation and both are well cared for. But bigamy is against the law and it was only a matter of time before everything blew up. Is bigamy still a thing? I would imagine that it would be much harder to pull something off these days, what with the Twitters, Facebooks and digital records. The final courtroom scene I felt did a great job summarizing the issue. If Harry had just kept Phyllis as a mistress, no one would’ve really cared. But the fact that he tried to make an ‘honest woman’ out of her is what did him in. It seemed like both women really loved him, but how could they continue?

Dan Savage would probably say DTMFA, or maybe everyone should just go poly!

FInal review: 4/5. Dramatic, but not overly so.

Up next: #100.

#90- Seven Samurai

Quick recap: A group of farmers, tired of being pillaged by bandits year after year (and really, who isn’t?) ,decide to hire samurai to keep their town safe. Seven samurai, to be precise.

Fun (?) fact: Seven Samurai was the first film to showcase a ‘reluctant hero’, as well as the gathering of the heroes, now common in a film like Ocean’s 11.

My thoughts: Nothing can kill my excitement for a movie quicker than ‘3 hours and 27 minutes’. I have heard people talk how amazing this movie is, but I just can’t see anything being worth 3 hours and 27 minutes. Except for Jeanne Dielman, but that was an action filled time watching her cook dinner and wash dishes. No way Seven Samurai could top that.

From the first scene, when the bandits decide to save their pillaging for another time when there will be stuff to pillage (common sense), there was non stop action. Maybe not action in the sense of fighting, although there was plenty of that, but action that drove the plot. I can’t think of a single scene that was unnecessary to the story, or a time that I felt bored. In the same respect, there wasn’t so much going on that I was confused. Although it is a long running time, it is well justified.

I think my favorite aspect of Seven Samurai and the part I was most surprised by, is the emotion. As the villagers and samurai became used to one another and started to work as a team, I became more invested in each character and although I knew that the ending would be sad, it still took me by surprise. I think most of that stems from watching how kind the samurai were to the entire village. Save for Katsushirō, the samurai who fell in love, everyone respected the farmers and went to great lengths to prove they weren’t all that bad. But in the end, samurai are warriors and they had to do what they were hired to do.

The final scenes in battle and the final moments with the samurai are some of the more emotional I have watched. The final scene especially: the 3 surviving warriors watching the happy villagers plant their crops and sing, almost as if they had forgotten all of the violence that led to their freedom from the bandits. Instead of being angry at the seeming callousness towards the fallen men, the samurai note that it is the villagers who are the victors and so should be celebrating. They have done their job.

Final review: 5/5. Watch this movie. Doesn’t matter if you dislike war films or having to read subtitles or whatever the excuse- watch this movie.

Up next: Monsieur Verdoux

1001 Movie Nights

Tag Archives: 1950’s

#112- Ashes and Diamonds

#105- The Golden Coach

#99- The Bigamist

#90- Seven Samurai

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